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Serious SD-Card Write issues after the new firmware..


steelduck

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The notion that the new firmware has an impact on SD card I/O functions is a myth.

 

I have not installed the new firmware release and therefore can have no opinion about it.

 

I am however in the software authoring profession since computers were made out of wood, and would never have a hard opinion about what a new release of anything 'could'nt' do. When it goes wrong, anything can happen. One of the properties of procedural code is that every line of code can affect the behavior of any other line of code.

 

I have seen lots of IO / device driver code that introduces speed assumptions (usually by software amateurs which unfortunately include many working for hardware companies or in specific expertise domains) that can crash, wait or branch almost anywhere when parameters are exceeded.

 

I am not saying that is what is happening here, as I do not know, but it certainly 'could' happen.

 

That being said, I follow very disciplined flash card initialization (first time secure erase followed by FAT32 formatting), and reformat every time in the camera to be used, and never touch the contacts (this is why I prefer Compact Flash cards to SD), and have not had flash card problems in any camera.

 

Regards to all .... Harold

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Let me add, I don't think this has to do with the FW update (although it could). I think it has to do with some problems in the coding and basic compatibility to meet the SD card specifications.

 

My cards are all from B&H Photo, so no fakes here, but I'll have to check the codes when I get home to be sure.

 

 

---Michael

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Hey, it's my first post! There's another David English registered here, so I added an underscore to differentiate our names.

 

I'm having the same issue as steelduck, even down to the sequence-numbered images with zero bytes. Didn't have the problem until after I applied the new firmware.

 

I've had this issue with five different cards now -- all SanDisk Ultra 16GB and all purchased directly from Amazon.

 

David

protozoid.com

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Hmmso far as I know you can - you can revert from the latest. Problem is I can't remember what the firmware number was prior to the current (1.116?? - or was this the beta). IF someone out there has it, worth sending to those with problems to check if this is firmware related?

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Is there a trend here? The Old Ultra II and Extreme III cards seem to work, but some of the new Ultra and Extreme cards where Sandisk dropped the II and III numbering seem to be the ones that generate problems.

.

 

Extreme III and the new Extreme are exactly the same card, just rebranded.

 

Steve

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Extreme III and the new Extreme are exactly the same card, just rebranded.

 

Thanks... I already noticed that it was not sandisk specific problem. I bought two Lexar Pro 8GB cards this morning and both failed the same way today. This started after the new firmware (which is have re-installed - did not help), so I would like to roll back to the older one, if that would help.

 

Does anyone have the code?

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Thanks... I already noticed that it was not sandisk specific problem. I bought two Lexar Pro 8GB cards this morning and both failed the same way today. This started after the new firmware (which is have re-installed - did not help), so I would like to roll back to the older one, if that would help.

 

Does anyone have the code?

 

I have the install code for 1.16 for the m9. I have no idea if you can go backwards but will be happy to email the package wherever you would like

 

regards ... H

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Do not under estimate the effect of ESD (electro-static-discharge).

Even so the manufacturers try to design extra protection, the frequent handling and touching causes electronic stress and it can cause all sorts of failure and will affect the MTBF (mean time between failure) or MTTF (mean time to failure).

Always try to discharge yourself and keep the card in anti static bags…

 

Electrostatic-sensitive device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Failure modes of electronics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Best

Uwe

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My bet is that you have counterfeit cards.

 

If they were, they were really good fakes. Boxes had holograms, the SanDisk Cards have all the right notches and serials and the performance is what it should be when bench marked.

 

I also took one of the failing cards and tested it on my small Panasonic point and shooter and it works just fine. Filled it up with pictures and video. I doubt it is EDS either, as I put the new card directly from the box to the M9 avoiding the copper parts.

 

The botton line is that I have 11 months old M9 that does not work with four different new high quality SDHD cards, after I updated to the new code.

 

I am no sherlock holmes, but I think there might be a connection... I might be wrong too... It sucks anyway, I have 10000+ euros on a system that I cannot trust to write my pictures on a memory card.

 

I will probably send it to Solms, but I am afraid that this is one of those bugs that are hard to reproduce and the camera comes back as broken as it went there. :(

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Or it is just an internal SD slot contact and easily fixed. As an aside: did you clean your SD contacts in th camera? My method is to cut two pieces of absorbant cardboard to SD width, put a few drops of Eclipse on one, insert it a few times in the SD slot and then use the other to dry. Works like a charm. Take care of rests of fiber in the slot! Commercial electronic contact spray might be a good idea. never tried it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
My bet is that you have counterfeit cards.

 

I don't think it should matter. I've owned and used quite a few digital cameras over the passed 10 years or so, and never have I seen a camera that is anywhere near as picky with memory cards as the M9. It's not the cards, it's the camera. I cannot remember an instance when I had problems with other cameras reading memory cards, even cards that are many years old on brand new cameras, and brand new cards on cameras that are many years old. Name brand cards, and el-cheap-o bargain brand cards, doesn't matter, never had problems (though I normally stick with the nicer sandisk cards, several capacity sizes smaller than whatever is the largest available when they go on sale). I don't think I've ever had a card that actually konked out on me either, (even had one sandisk go through the wash and dry!) and I've only ever had to recover missing images when they were images that were deleted before someone knew that they had not been saved somewhere yet.

 

I've found a card that works with my M9, so I can't complain, it works! And I've not had a single problem with it for a long time now.

 

I do not think that I have ever had any counterfit cards since I always buy them new and directly from major resellers (B&H, or locally at Samys), never off of ebay or used from an individual. But I don't know if that guarantees that mine are genuine or not.

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The forum has snippets of SD cards threads all over the place. They have been closed and a new thread has been opened in the SD card subforum. The intention is to keep all opinion and expertise in that thread. Thank you all for the effort put in so far.

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